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U.S. director Gus Van Sant's Sea of Trees screened at Cannes

Xinhua, May 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. director Gus Van Sant's Sea of Trees was screened Saturday for the official competition of the ongoing 68th Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival).

Starring Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts, the movie is about the journey of Arthur Brennan of reflection and survival, which affirms Arthur's will to live and reconnects him to his love with his deceased wife.

It's love and loss that lead Arthur Brennan, across the world to Japan's Aokigahara, a mysterious dense forest known as a place where people go to contemplate life and death. Having found the perfect place to die, Arthur encounters Takumi Nakamura, a Japanese man who also appears to have lost his way. The two men then embark on the road to find the way out of "the sea of trees".

"The character was fulfilling a promise to his wife, walking into this place with the idea he's going to commit suicide. It was the pretext really for us to go on this journey with him," said Van Sant, who has been nominated twice for Best Director by the Academy.

The movie is all about how a tragedy happened to Arthur that leads him to rekindle his love for his wife, and how another tragedy leads him to the beginning of a new life.

"How a tragedy can really get two people back conciously into life and back into love, it is miraculous and heartbreaking," said Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey.

For Naomi, who has a great compassion for the character she plays, the power of struggle in the movie is a universal thing that people all run into at some point.

Describing the woman she plays as "broken in many ways", Naomi Watts said: "The relationship, although built on love, has hit a wall, and they (Arthur and Joan Brennan) haven't found a way to reinvent it".

Gus Van Sant won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his drama Elephant in 2003, and a special prize for his movie Paranoid Park in 2007 at the 60th Festival de Cannes.

A total of 19 films were selected to compete for the top prize Palme d'Or. The 68th Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) runs from May 13 to 24. Endit